Halloween Topic #2: Ghosts, ghouls, etc.

[Al Alven]

Do you believe in ghosts, spirts, ghouls, hauntings, etc.?

Ever have a "spiritual encounter" that you'd care to share with the rest of us?

I'll tell mine if you tell yours... ;D

[thelastresort]

I do believe, to a point. I never had an "encounter", but would welcome one, since it would thus eliminate any lingering doubts I may have about life after death. - - But if I were to have an encounter, I hope it is not like a Jacob Marley one, with screaming and banging chains, or a spooky Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come , but rather, a kindly old man Ghost of Christmas Past, or a jolly Ghost of Christmas Present type one.

[tbear]

We've had a few strange unexplainable events happen in my home that we have just chauked up to some old folks who didn't like what we were doing with their home. We own a home that was built in 1840 and we decided to fix it up since the previous owner did no updating since the 1920's. It seemed that these events occured after we started tearing walls down and continued until the room was complete. I guess they like what we did to the rooms so they stopped.

[Al Alven]

thelastresort said:

I do believe, to a point. I never had an "encounter", but would welcome one, since it would thus eliminate any lingering doubts I may have about life after death. - - But if I were to have an encounter, I hope it is not like a Jacob Marley one, with screaming and banging chains, or a spooky Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come , but rather, a kindly old man Ghost of Christmas Past, or a jolly Ghost of Christmas Present type one.

Same here, TLR.

The somewhat-frustrating thing is, I've had a number of what I would call [Dr. Evil voice] "quasi" encounters [\Dr. Evil voice].

Some of these incidents have been "real" enough to make me believe in the supernatural, but, without any tangible evidence (or the experience of actually "seeing" a ghost), have also left plenty of doubt.

[Al Alven]

tbear said:

We've had a few strange unexplainable events happen in my home that we have just chauked up to some old folks who didn't like what we were doing with their home. We own a home that was built in 1840 and we decided to fix it up since the previous owner did no updating since the 1920's. It seemed that these events occured after we started tearing walls down and continued until the room was complete. I guess they like what we did to the rooms so they stopped.

Queer Eye for the Spirit Guys...? ;D

[themanbefore]

The Scalary Brothers freaked me out. I saw them in a court room once. Bonus points to whoever knows what i'm talking about. But actual spooks i do beleive in them. Some family members of mine have said to see dead relatives after their funeral. I think you also have to really beleive that they're there.

[pam]

I never really believed....until my senior year in college,'79-'80. I was lying in bed one night trying to go to sleep. My roommate had graduated the previous semester so I was alone in the room. Not drowsy...wide awake. I distinctly felt fingers run up and down my back and I just froze. Freaked me out. Sometimes when I answer the phone the voice on the other end sounds just like my mother (who passed away in 1998.) Just wishful thinking on my part, I suppose.

[tbear]

themanbefore said:

The Scalary Brothers freaked me out. I saw them in a court room once. Bonus points to whoever knows what i'm talking about.

Let's see if I get the bonus points, could it possibly be Ghostbusters 2!?

[Cindy]

I believe; it is probably because I had an encounter.


It happened when I was a child, but I remember is vividly. I always thought it was a treat to sleep in my parents' bed. One night, I went up and climbed into their bed. Everyone else was downstairs. I was lying there and I felt like someone was watching me. So, I looked towards the door and saw a shadow of what seemed like someone peeking at me. Just a shadow. It was in and out, like a parent just checking in on a sleeping child. I called "Mom", Dad", then louder until they came running upstairs. My dad thought someone broke in, but there was no one (top floor of a row house, so going out a window would have been impossible.) My dad told me it was my guardian angel.


A girl that I work with is into paranormal investigations, so I told her the story. Apparently, I saw a "shadow person". Oddly, sightings are rare. What is more common are smells. I grew up in Langhorne, PA. The "historic" area has a few documented haunted houses. One in particular reports smelling cookies baking.

[FlyinGN]

small world Cindy. I grew up In Holland Bucks county and I too heard of the Langhorne haunted houses. Its was great driving up there in a Friday night with frinds ..

cindy said:

I believe; it is probably because I had an encounter.


It happened when I was a child, but I remember is vividly. I always thought it was a treat to sleep in my parents' bed. One night, I went up and climbed into their bed. Everyone else was downstairs. I was lying there and I felt like someone was watching me. So, I looked towards the door and saw a shadow of what seemed like someone peeking at me. Just a shadow. It was in and out, like a parent just checking in on a sleeping child. I called "Mom", Dad", then louder until they came running upstairs. My dad thought someone broke in, but there was no one (top floor of a row house, so going out a window would have been impossible.) My dad told me it was my guardian angel.


A girl that I work with is into paranormal investigations, so I told her the story. Apparently, I saw a "shadow person". Oddly, sightings are rare. What is more common are smells. I grew up in Langhorne, PA. The "historic" area has a few documented haunted houses. One in particular reports smelling cookies baking.

[scca28]

Welllll, we had several incidents at the house where I grew up. The worst was the night everyone was awakened by the sounds from our kitchen of someone setting the dinner table. Every house has distinct sounds, like our old glass front cabinets that rattled loudly when the catch was popped open, the screech of the heavy kitchen chairs when they were pushed across the linolium floor, chinaware clanking as it was placed on the bare table top and the overloaded silverware drawer that always stuck, then popped open making the utensils inside crash about. Me and my brother came out of our room thinking it was breakfast time. Simultaniously, my dad is coming down the hall, carrying his WWII bayonet and a flashlight with my mom on his heels, and my sister and grandmother came out of the third bedroom also asking who was downstairs. Of coure, when we got downstairs, nothing was out of place. We lived in a twin house and the next day we asked the neighbors about the noises and none of them were up in the middle of the night, nor did they hear anything.
A couple of months ago I took a nostalgia trip down my old street. It's been 20 years and most of the people we knew are gone. When I got to our old house a young woman was coming out onto the porch. I introduced myself, told her I grew up there, but she looked like she didn't know whether to believe me or not. But after I described a few things me and my dad had done to the house, she just blurted out "You must be Dave". That freaked me at first, but then she explained about the concrete work in the basement that is inscribed "Dad and Dave 1969". Anyway, I was going to ask her if they had any strange happenings in the house, but I thought it best to spare her the worry and didn't mention anything.
Now, at my curent house I have been visited by my dad a few times. He passed away in '99. One night while laying on the floor watching TV, I was overcome by the smells of my dad when he would come home from work at the machine shop when I was a kid. Very strong mixture of cutting oils, cast iron etc. And this smell lingered for a few seconds, then was gone. My first instinct was to get up and run around the room to track down the smell, but then my brain finally processed what I was sensing and I just layed back down and thanked my dad for stopping by. I have felt his hand on the back of my neck, even had him yank hard on the hairs one time! Another night, in a dead sleep, two hands pulled on my right arm til I was sitting up in bed. As I came out of my sleep I just said "Dad?" My wife heard me and asked what was going on, I said oh, nothing. Didn't want to freak her out. He also came to me in a dream recently. It was in our old house,I was walking down the stairs and I looked up and my dad was in the hallway looking down at me. I said "Hi dad" and he smiled and said "Is everything okay?". Then I woke up.
Dad was a big believer in the afterlife and had lots of books on it, which sadly I didn't take when he passed away. I was there the day he quit smoking back in the mid '70s. He lit a cigarette, then just froze. He broke the cigarette and dropped it, then he pulled the pack out of his shirt pocket and crushed it. He said he felt his mother's hands inside his chest, squeezing his lungs until he dropped the crushed pack....He never smoked again. I have been reading what I can on the subject, and lots of it is baloney, but in certain cases you can tell when someone has had an honest strange occurance.
I believe.
Happy Halloween

[thelastresort]

Very interesting, thanks.

I basically believe, cause like my dad always says "this (life) can't be all there is, cause this ain't all that great".

[FlyinGN]

Great story Dave..... Thanks buddy..